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2012 Olympics: The women's games?

Colorado's Missy Franklin among historic number of women competing in London

By Sam MellingerMcClatchy Newspapers

Posted:
07/29/2012 10:32:46 PM MDT

Updated:
07/29/2012 10:36:22 PM MDT

Japan's Aya Terakawa right, embraces United States' Missy Franklin after their women's 100-meter backstroke semifinal at the Aquatics Centre in London s Olympic Park on Sunday. A record number of women are competing in this year s games.
(Daniel Ochoa De Olza/Associated Press)

LONDON -- They have come here from more than 200 countries speaking dozens of languages to put on the world's grandest sporting event, but this time it doubles as a revolution. Some of the best athletes on planet Earth are all over this great city, and they've already made history.

The revolution is powerful and diverse -- and it is led by athletes named Jessica and Gabby and Hope.

For the next two weeks, these will be the Olympics of Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt and Team USA men's basketball. But when history remembers these games, it will be about the women. Lots and lots of women. The Title IX Olympics.

"The development of women in sports is huge," says Mariel Zagunis, a two-time gold-medal fencer who carried the flag for Team USA during the opening ceremonies. "I am where I am today because of the women who paved the way. They were the ones who fought for our rights."

We've never seen this many women pushing athletic limits at the Olympics -- an important symbol at the world's most high-profile sporting event.

The United States is represented by more women than men for the first time ever. Russia also has more women competing. One hundred and twelve years after women were first allowed to compete, and 108 years after they were first awarded medals, more women will compete in these games than ever before, whether you count by percentage (45 percent) or total (4,860).

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For the first time, every participating country has a woman athlete competing.

Oppressive cultures in Saudi Arabia and Qatar are represented by women for the first time. Women's boxing is new, so that women now compete in every Olympic sport. The host country's poster athlete is a woman: Heptathlete Jessica Ennis' face is everywhere here.

Seoul had Ben Johnson's steroids bust in 1988, Barcelona had the Dream Team in 1992, and Beijing opened the world to much of China in 2008. These games in London just may be remembered as a critical brick in building an overdue sports stage for our world's women.

And for that, we can thank a woman known as Bunny.

Born in New York City, Bernice "Bunny" Sandler, who is 83 years old, has been dubbed "the Godmother of Title IX" by the New York Times. She's a senior scholar at the Women's Research and Education Institute in Washington, D.C., an adjunct associate professor at Drexel University College of Medicine and the author of numerous articles on gender equity. She's a living pioneer, the driving force behind the development and passage of legislation that four decades ago opened doors for today's female Olympians.

"I specifically remember this," Sandler says today. "I remember saying to someone, 'Isn't this great? On field day (at schools), there's going to be more activities for girls.'"

Back then, sports were a man's domain. Some worried about women competing too hard, "that their uteruses would fall out or something," Sandler says.

When Title IX took effect 40 years ago, signed into law by President Richard Nixon, sexism and sexual harassment were foreign terms. It wasn't that women weren't victims of discrimination; it's just that we didn't have a good name for it yet.

Passage of the bill into law eventually even shook our country's sports landscape, and residual progress in social interactions and the business world followed. Twelve bills have been introduced to weaken Title IX's oversight of sports since its implementation. Five made it to a vote, but none has passed.

In the next two weeks, more women will compete in London than had been in every Olympics combined before Title IX's passage. That's not a coincidence. Polls show that 80 percent of Americans support Title IX, and it's easy to see why.

"It's all about timing, for me to grow up and have so many opportunities," says Zagunis, the fencer. "And to have it be no question. It wasn't, 'If I will play;' it's, 'What sport will I play?'"

The most important aspect of this isn't the athletic achievements, as admirable as they may be, but what those achievements have fostered in our culture. Sports is a great machine for social progress; witness Jackie Robinson's role in the Civil Rights movement.

"What we are seeing with the London Olympics is a reflection of the growth and impact of Title IX," Billie Jean King, the tennis icon and a leading voice for women's sports, told reporters recently. "We now have a stronger foundation for future generations of female Olympians, and we need to remain committed to sustaining this movement and the progress we are making, here in the USA and globally."

That last part is important. For all the progress that's been made, more is still needed.

Medals collected by female athletes and teams in London over the next 17 days will help.

Storylines might come from Claressa "T-Rex" Shields, a 17-year-old boxer from Flint, Mich. Women's boxing was added to the Olympics for the first time this year, and Shields is the youngest on the inaugural American squad.

Or American swimmer Missy Franklin, also young at 17. Nicknamed "The Missile" for her prowess in the pool, this native of Colorado will have the opportunity to win multiple medals in the next two weeks.

Maybe one day, she'll catch up to Natalie Coughlin, 29, another swimmer who on Saturday tied fellow Americans Jenny Thompson and Dara Torres as our country's most decorated female Olympians of all-time with a staggering 12th medal, which Coughlin received for her role on the 4x100 relay team, even though she didn't swim in the finals.

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